“I’m lickin’ this bra! Found it at the police station!”
(after Achewood, which you really oughtta be reading on a regular basis)
Unrequired Reading: May 23, 2008
It’s the Memorial Day Weekend! Here are some links to check out in between grilling dogz and burgz! Have a great holiday, American readers!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: May 23, 2008”
Random House’s Salute To Fireworks
I’ve goofed on my history of (incredibly) small press publishing for years. While there are plenty of specific reasons why I was a failure, there are also some pretty enormous structural problems with the business of book publishing. I think most of those problems can be traced back to bookstore returnability, but it’s a complex argument that I don’t feel like making right now.
What brings me to this topic is the news that Bertelsmann, a privately held German media conglomerate, looks ready to announce a new president for Random House, one of the largest publishing companies in the world. Perturbed that Random hasn’t had any blockbuster hits in the last year and revenues have slipped, ownership (and new CEO Hartmut Ostrowski) decided to promote from within. Of course, when you’re a major conglomerate like Bertelsmann, “within” can be a pretty broad term.
In this case, Random House’s new president, Markus Dohle, comes from Bertelsmann’s Arvato Print unit. What’s Arvato? Why, I’ll let the WSJ explain:
While Arvato is so unglamorous a business it was once referred to inside Bertelsmann as “Siberia,” it has served as a major growth engine for Bertelsmann in recent years. Arvato has been plunging into far-ranging businesses such as repairing mobile telephones, storing pharmaceuticals and running call centers and billing systems. Last year it booked almost [$7.8 billion] in revenue, or about a quarter of Bertelsmann’s turnover.
I’m sure Mr. Dohle’s a fine executive, and I’m sure Mr. Ostrowski (another Arvato Print alumni) has some big ideas for how Bertelsmann can make book publishing a major contributor to its bottom line (it’s currently at 10% of company revenues), but this sort of pedigree sounds a lot like the appointment of Jack Donaghy to the role of Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming.
What It Is: 5/19/08
What I’m reading: Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad, and the first 8 issues of the new Omega the Unknown miniseries, sorta written by Jonathan Lethem, whose prose I’ve never tried out. I oughtta sample some of his stuff on my Kindle
What I’m listening to: A new Mad Mix. More to come.
What I’m watching: Game 7 of Cavs/Celts, and wondering if the LeBron/Pierce matchup was going to live up to the ‘Nique/Bird shootout in 1988. It was pretty awesome.
What I’m drinking: Wet by Beefeater.
Where I’m going: Nowhere, not even for Memorial Day weekend. Sigh.
What I’m happy about: Getting out for a fantastic meal at Saddle River Inn on Saturday night, even if Dad raised the stakes on inappropriate conversation by launching into a discourse on the method used by my mohel. Seriously.
What I’m REALLY happy about: My pal Tina got married!
What I’m sad about: The Celtics won.
What I’m pondering: Microsoft’s strategy. Post to come.
Unrequired Reading: May 16, 2008
yeahyeah: make with the Friday-into-the-weekend reading. . .
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: May 16, 2008”
The White Stuff
I’m sure he’s a perfectly good guy, but I was just transfixed by this combo of headshot & name in today’s WSJ:
Probably because of this guy:
What it is: 5/12/08
What I’m reading: Lush Life
What I’m listening to: Rain
What I’m watching: More NBA playoffs and the third season of The Wire
What I’m drinking: Brooklyn Brewery Summer Ale.
Where I’m going: Nowhere!
What I’m happy about: That lunch on Friday still seems pretty awesome to me.
What I’m sad about: That I had to mute the broadcast of the Lakers-Jazz game on Sunday after Mike Tirico had to deliver an extended shill for the new installment of High School Musical . . . and two of its stars happen to be sitting right next to us at courtside! Great corporate synergy, DisneyABCESPN. You probably managed to ensnare a whole new audience for High School Musical: you know, hardcore hoops fans who blew off Mothers Day to watch an NBA playoff game.
What I’m pondering: A whole ton of gardening/landscaping issues, now that the tree removal guys have done their business.
Mini Driver
I worked at home today, dear readers, in anticipation of a visit from James Maloney & Son Tree Service. In addition to getting The Raccoon Lodge removed, we contracted a whole lot of other work with them, removing some smaller trees from the front yard, getting a couple of hazardous ones removed from the side of the house, cutting too-low limbs from the big trees to get some sunlight onto the yard, and sawing down some stumps so we can begin the nefarious second phase of Operation: Livable Back Yard.
Since I’d be at home, I took Amy to the bus stop today. It’s a quirky logic, but we’re a quirky couple. Anyway, about 10 minutes before the tree guys were to arrive, I thought, “Hmm. Amy’s Mini is sitting right in the driveway, and I bet they’re going to need to get past that in order to take care of a lot of this work.”
Unfortunately, her car’s a stick-shift, and I’ve never actually driven a stick-shift, outside of the one time she tried to teach me in the bus-stop parking lot. Oh, and the time when I was 16 and my pals Jon-Eric & Todd tried to teach me, before we headed to the Kinnelon Cinema to see The Running Man.
I dug deep into that 1987 version of me and tried to recreate the experience of zooming around the parking lot of my high school, but it was to no avail.
Then I looked again into that geeky high school soul and discovered inspiration from another artifact of that era: the Miller/Mazzucchelli 7-issue run of Daredevil
Emboldened, I went out to Amy’s Mini, took off the emergency brake, put it in neutral, let it roll down to the bottom of the driveway, tried several times to get it to start, tried several times to get it in gear, and eventually made my way up into the garage!
(Where I, um, stalled out and had to push it in the rest of the way so I could close the garage door…)
(Oh, and, before-and-after pix of the yard are pending…)
Caucasian Coincidence
Yesterday, I began reading Lush Life
At one point, he mentions how in college he got the lead in a play called The Caucasian Chalk Circle. I thought this was some sort of inside joke of a title, or a dig at the absurdities of college theater.
This morning, I received an e-mail from my local alumni association with the subject line, “Don’t miss The Caucasian Chalk Circle”! Evidently,
a) I’m a cultural moron,
b) it’s by Brecht, and
c) another alum is co-starring in it.
Anyway, here’s the website of the theater company (and a review), if you’re in NYC and wanna see one of the final performances (it finishes on Sunday).
What It Is: 5/5/2008
What I’m reading: Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, on my Kindle via Manybooks.net. And Lush Life
What I’m listening to: Third
What I’m watching: Juno, which was cute. And we started the third season of the wire
What I’m drinking: More G’Vine G&Ts, plus Circus Boy by Magic Hat.
Where I’m going: Nowhere this week, but I’ll be working at home mid-week when the tree-removal guys show up to clear out a bunch of the more hazardous trees in the yard. I’ll take before-and-after pix.
What I’m happy about: That my trip into NYC yesterday to donate platelets at Sloan-Kettering went off without a hitch, despite the presence of the Five Boro Bike Tour, which would shut down the southbound FDR Drive later in the day. If I’d gotten caught in that traffic on the way into the city, I’d have been quite peeved. Good thing I’m an earlybird!
What I’m sad about: That a tick managed to evade the combined efforts of Frontline and my vigilant eye, leading to a nasty-looking bite on one of Rufus’ forelegs. Now I’ve gotta get him to the vet. Grr.
What I’m pondering: When I went to that pharma-event in Atlantic City last Monday, the keynote address was given by Linda Ellerbee. She didn’t have anything to say about clinical supplies and outsourcing, but she did give a funny and warm speech about her own history, women’s roles in the workplace, cheating husbands, breast cancer, and the messed-up-edness of the media. Some of it showed a real datedness, insofar as a lot of women under 35 simply don’t have the same limits that Linda butted up against when she was trailblazing. But that’s not what I’m pondering.
No, what I’m pondering is why, of all people she could quote throughout history to illustrate the need to change one’s own ways, she went with Anwar Sadat. Now, I can understand why his words — “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” — were relevant to her speech.
I just think that maybe she could’ve looked for someone whose change of thought — in this case, visiting Israel and working for peace — didn’t lead to his being assassinated by his own army.